Friday, June 28, 2013

Supernatural Friday: Zombies Never Came From George Romero

Zombies are a term some reporter titled the ghouls in
George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead."The zombie
and the horror movie were married very early in the history of films. In fact,
the 1932 movie, “White Zombie” which stared Bela Lugosi pretty much type cast
the zombie as a movie monster.

Interestingly enough, zombies actually come from the Congo and not Benin where Voodoo comes from. The
word, “nbzambi” refers to their primary sprit and/or refers to one’s soul. When
the Trans-Atlantic slave trade mixed peoples from all over the African Atlantic Coast,
the zombie found a new home in Voodoo.

Four kinds of zombies are in Voodoo; the Great Spirit,
the Spiritual Soul, the Herbal Zombie, and the Bargained Zombie.

Li Grand Zombi: this is the snake spirit in Voodoo given the
Congolese name for the same principal entity. The snake used by Marie Laveau in
New Orleans was
said to have been called “li grand zombi.” The Louisiana mud snake used in rituals is
sometimes called “ouncongo.”

Now, that familiar living dead zombie of movie familiarity has two versions,
one is spiritual and the other, chemical.

Spiritual Zombie: this follows an African belief that a person
has two souls. One is called the Great Angle. The other one is called the
Little Angle. When a person dies, the Great Angle immediately knows the person
is dead and departs the body. The Little Angle, on the other hand, takes about
three days to realize the body is dead (this seems to be close to how when
someone passes away, it takes three days usually before they are buried.
During that time, a witchdoctor may invoke the Congolese Ghédé spirit to reach
the Little Angle and cause it to believe the body is not dead. The corpse is
reanimated, using the Little Angle as a motor.

Herbal Zombie: The West Africans were master chemists in use of
herbs and poisons. To make a zombie chemically, it was necessary to cause
the victim to have the appearance of death, then apply an antidote to revive
them. The basic poison comes from the common blowfish. Dried and powdered, it
is a nerve poison, and is applied mainly in one’s shoes, surreptitiously, and
absorbed through the sweet glands in the feet. The poison inhibits the natural
conductivity of the nervous system and causes the body to atrophy and look
decreased. This phase completes the deception of death. In the second
phase the antidote, a paste from the seedpod of the angle’s trumpet flower is
applied. The seedpod contains two types of active ingredients. The first is
atropine to counteracts the nerve poisoning. The second is a hallucinogenic
that causes both amnesia and disorientation. The final result is a person who
appeared to have died, is resurrected, and is now mentally incoherent, but
physically functional. A form of control.

In Haiti,
which is most closely associated with the resurrected zombie, it is considered
a fate worse than death to become a zombie. A zombie is supposedly an immortal
slave. To become a zombie is considered a great catastrophe and a terrible fear
far worse than death.

Bargained Zombie: This is a voluntary arrangement in which the
volunteer bargains to have his lesser soul exorcised and keep by a Voodoo
Queen. Due to this arrangement, the Voodoo Queen can protect and give
advantages to the volunteer. At some point, the volunteer has to surrender the
rest of his soul. This usually occurs when the Voodoo Queen dies, and is no
longer able to protect the volunteer. The classic example of this the case of
Jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton and his godmother, Voodoo Queen, Eulalie Hécaud.

Rougarou: Ah, this creature was used a monster of the week in
a “Supernatural’ episode. There’s a swamp creature in Louisiana that is half man, half beast. It
is a strong figure in Cajun folklore. Like a zombie, he is often the product of
the manipulation of a deceased soul by a witchdoctor. Although the
legends of the rougarou are closely related to European werewolf tales, there
are several distinctions between the European werewolf, the French loup-garou,
and the night lurking, bayou-wandering creature called the rougarou. Yes, like
the French loup garou (werewolf), it often has red eyes and is usually
nocturnal. But just like a zombie, it is deathly afraid of frogs.

A person who encounters the rougarou
draws one or three drops of blood, that person then has the spell, and from
there, the tale can be either light or dark. In the darker tale, usually the
person who encounters the rougarou commits suicide. The darker tale is almost
always associated with a person who told of the encounterin less than
a year. According to local stories printed in several sources in the Ellender
Memorial Library archives, these animals roam the streets at night. They
antagonize wandering people until they attack it, stabbing or shooting it. At
the first drop of blood the animal will return to its human form. The rougarou
will tell the attacker who he is.Often
the rougarou is someone the witness knows or has heard of. The rougarou usually
tells the witness if he informs others of this encounter within one year and a
day, he too will become a rougarou.

This popular folklore creature is often
used to scare small kids into good behavior. The term rougarou has even become
so popular in south Louisiana
that it has evolved into a descriptive adjective, "rougarouing," used
to describe a person who runs around or stays up late at night.The annual
Rougarou ball on deep Bayou Goula happens every St. John’s Eve and is real.

About Me

Pamela K. Kinney is a published author of horror, science fiction, fantasy, poetry, and nonfiction ghost books published by Schiffer Publishing. Her latest fiction includes short horror stories, "Donating" in Inhuman Magazine, Issue 5 December 2011 and "Bottled Spirits" (a Predator and Editor 2012 winner and a 2013 WSFA Small Press Award runner up), “Azathoth is Here" reprinted by Innsmouth Press in Innsmouth Magazine: Collected Issues 1-4 in Kindle and ePub formats, short dark fantasy, “Devil in the Details,” included in Harboring Secrets anthology and short horror story, “Let Demon Dogs Lie” released in Southern Haunt: Devils in the Darkness anthology March 2014, and coming soon, a fantasy short story, “Weregoat” in Strangely Funny II anthology. And of course, she has her horror and dark fantasy tales collection in print and download, Spectre Nightmares and Visitations, published by Under the Moon.
She also has done acting on stage and in films, is a Master Costumer, costuming since 1972, and she even does paranormal investigating, including for DVDs for Paranormal World Seekers, filmed by AVA Productions.